Normal Kingdom childhood

" Yes, there's an angel standing over there and He's purple."

"Jesus gave me a microphone and told me I'm going to talk to many people."

" I went swimming with Jesus and the whales because He loves me."

These are the things that I hear on a weekly basis, what is that you might ask? These are the voices of a generation of children walking out a relationship with God.

When I was a child, Sunday school consisted of felt boards and memorized Bible verses. The goal being..well I don't remember what the goal was. I do however remember the stories, some of the scriptures and I know how to navigate through the Bible at lightening speed. Do I regret the Sunday school education that I had.. no not really, do I believe there is more, absolutely!

As I've walked out my life coming from relating to God through my parents to finding my own path to intimacy with God I've discovered so major keys. Before I share what the Lord has reveled to me over the last several years of my life I want to give a brief description of my life and my passion.

I was raised in a non-denominational church in the deep south. While the presence of God saturated the sanctuary the amount of legalism and religion was intense. During the time of my formative years encounters with God where quite common. Pretty profound encounters with angels, demons, and Jesus. The Spirit realm was a reality for me at a very young age but there was a lack of understanding and no real knowledge of stewardship. As most stories go there was a fissure in our church over hidden sin. This removed me from my reality that had been so closely guarded launching me into a world of unknown realities.

Where did the presence go? Where were the signs and wonders? Where in the heck was God and why in the heck did He leave me? Teenage land contained all these questions as we stepped into another church world know as Evangelicalism. Far from the home I knew and loved launched into a world of harsh realities and unknown norms I found myself questioning everything I had ever been told. Is God real? Are we real? What's real anymore?

My years of hiccuping where 7 in total. Yes, to describe walking away from the Bride of Christ I describe it as long hiccup. Did I walk away from God? No..never, I had seen too much to know that He was real if that was the only thing that was real at least I could cling on to that.

After enduring 7 years of hell on earth discovering in all reality the choices I was making where literally leading me to death I cried out for sovereign deliverance. In a matter of a couple months my life was completely shifted from the kingdom of darkness back to the kingdom of light. I was home..home..what did that mean? Was it going to be controlling, full of rules and condemnation? Was God really a mean manipulative God? As I stepped back into the Kingdom of Light, the light literally came on in my Spirit. I entered into a whole new world that from my formative years had never been experienced. I entered into a powerful, loving, life giving, healing, peaceful, full, Kingdom.

This reality of the Kingdom was completely new and foreign to me but my spirit drank deep and ate ravenously from the truth that was being released. I'd never felt so hungry or so thirsty for truth before not knowing that Truth it self was a person, was the Son of God. The eyes of my spirit where once again opened. Once again the reality of seeing in the spirit realm broke on me like a violent wave. Angels, demons, God, and encounters of all kinds came like a flood. Still not being in an environment where there was an understanding of how to steward, grow, and shape my gifting I began to seek understanding, wisdom and knowledge.

Breakthrough happened, as much as I reached out for God he reached back out to me. I found a place where the gifting, the culture and the love all lined up with what I knew was true Kingdom Culture. So I ran after that. Diving head first discovering God on a level I had never seen, heard, or felt before. Knowing that this part of the Bride of Christ was unlike anything I had ever encountered in my whole life. There wasn't manipulation, control, rules..it was replaced with a grace, honor, and freedom to be myself unlike I had ever experienced before.

So I ate and drank again and again until the orphan that I had been transformed into the daughter that I was created to be. During my rehabilitation into the fullness of what I was created to be, I asked God what I was called to in my life. Clearer then I've ever heard rang the words "I've called you to a children's revival." My spirit vibrated with that reality but what did that mean? Felt boards and memory verses flashed through my mind at the thought of children's ministry but that's not what God had said..He said revival.

Let me take a moment now and define revival... revival- an act or instance of reviving: the state of being revived. To revive someone means there was once life but there no longer is, it's returning a state of something to it's original purpose. Revival in the Kingdom of God means an awakening to original design. We are originally designed for Glory and intimacy with our Maker.

On the day the Lord called me to a children's revival I had to ponder the fact that there was something that was out of original design. You mean felt boards are not in original design? Hmm, I thought and pondered and set out on a journey of discovering what the journey of revival was for children and what was their original glory? What and who where they created to be in the Kingdom? What was their rightful place in the body of Christ?

Answers of all sorts started flying into my net. Revival for children was not a new thing it has been happening for centuries. Children were predominately encountered along with adults in every major revival in fact some revivals where started from the contending of a child. The history of God moving always had this element of children, then why do we separate them from the body at large during "revival meetings"? This made we wonder what our value system as the body of Christ was for children? Why did we stick them in the back rooms just to keep them quiet feeding them snacks and sitting them in front of TV's watching veggie tales. (Not that I'm against any of that) There was a desire in me to understand the importance of what children carried and how God could use them to bring the fullness of Heaven on Earth.

God started to connect me with people who championed children in every area. From the poor children to the rich ones there is a movement of God stirring. God, called to those who would listen and stirs them up to carry a transformation for children. As I started talking and learning about what God is doing amongst children I realized that we as a Body of Christ have so long not seen the fullness of the Bride. Not seeing that these little people are part of the body. Unfortunately we have missed in passed years the gold that can be gleaned from the faith of a child. Unknowingly we, because of fear or lack of knowledge have limited our desire to put any effort into learning how to steward children and their giftings correctly.

But...there is a new generation rising that is seeing the potential in the children, learning how to steward their giftings, calls, destiny, and learning that Sunday school is not a time for entertainment but for learning about the Kingdom.

The revival starts in our hearts, we are revived with the reality that God is passionate about encountering His children no matter what age. As adults God has given the honor to us to steward a generation that will move in the fullness of the Kingdom. Learning that hearing God's voice in normal, signs and wonders are normal, and walking in the Kingdom is fun!

God is bringing back what it's like to live a normal kingdom childhood. What does that mean? what does that look like? I will be exploring several topics in this blog that will hopefully bring you and the children in your environment freedom to encounter God in a way that has never happened before.

Many blessings,

Aileen Foos

Children's Pastor

Expression 58